Journey into Otherland

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RealU's pretty, free-to-play upcoming MMO.

By Charles Onyett

Based on Tad Williams' sci-fi book series of the same name, developer RealU's Otherland is scheduled to be released in North America and Europe in 2012. Gamigo will handle online publishing, while dtp entertainment will publish the retail version of this free-to-play game.

It's been quite a long while since we've had an update on the Unreal Engine 3-based Otherland, so we spoke with gamigo's Patrick Streppel and RealU's Andrew Carter via email.

IGN: For those who haven't read Tad Williams' series, can you give an overview of what this world is and the player's role within?

Andrew Carter: Otherland is a free-to-play, MMO game based upon the best selling novels by Tad Williams.

Set in the near future, Otherland is a virtual online universe composed of many unique and compelling virtual worlds, known as the Multi-Verse, where deep fantasy meets sci-fi and advanced simulation.

Otherland Gameplay Trailer

Originally designed to be personal playgrounds of power-hungry mortals, and provide eternal life for its creators, the Grail Brotherhood, the worlds of Otherland have evolved beyond the simulations they were intended to be and have now become living worlds. Not only will the player need to find their place in these worlds, they'll also need to uncover who – or what – is secretly guiding the destiny of these fantastical worlds and return order to the chaos.

IGN: Do you follow along with a main story in the game, can you give a few hints as to what it will be like?

Andrew Carter: Set after the events of the books, the Otherland game sees the player battling against the virtual offspring of the Grail Brotherhood, the originators of Otherland, as they manipulate the tattered remains of the Otherland Multi-Verse to rebuild their empire and resume their position as the terrible new Gods of Otherland.

The game introduces new concepts such as eDNA and Myland as well as new story whilst also incorporating key concepts, locations and characters from the novels in a sandbox environment where the player is free to either peruse the story or explore at his will.

IGN: Can you describe some of the various worlds the player will travel to? What sets them apart, what inspired their designs, and what opportunities will the player have to change them? Are those changes permanent? If so, are they permanent for only the player or also the rest of the game's population?

Andrew Carter: The player will travel to many rich, varied and fantastic worlds, some that are are inspired by the Novels including Lambda Mall, 8 Squared, Mylands and many others. Each world in turn contains dozens of sub locations. All these locations exist within a singular virtual space known as the Multi-Verse and are connected together by a vast array of programable portals. What sets them apart is their richness on a vast scale, variety and overall extremely high visual quality. The player is not able to change the worlds generally, but can make changes to his Myland as this belongs to him.

IGN: Are the explorable areas wide open for all players? Or do you have to perform special tasks to access each new world?

Andrew Carter: All of the worlds are freely open to be explored by all players providing they have aquired the portal address needed to reach them via questing and leveling. The only limits are organic.

Fancy graphics, free to play.

IGN: Can you describe some of the quest goals? What types of things will NPCs ask you to do? Can these tasks be taken on in groups as well as solo?

Andrew Carter: Throughout the player's time in Otherland, they'll encounter a variety of quests include story, instance, party based, world event and sandbox quests.

Broadly the quest themes follow two threads, one connected to the local events taking place within each of the Otherland worlds where the inhabitants do not realise they are simulations. The other revolving around the larger events unfolding in Otherland and the true purpose of its existence. The quests play on both the virtual setting of Otherland and the illusion within each game world.

IGN: What happens when you die? Is there a penalty? What's at risk?

Andrew Carter: There are a few stages to death to mitigate the frustration of death in the game. When a player runs out of health they fall to the floor and enter a revive state. At this point any player can approach your resting corpse and revive you. This takes some of the attending player's health, but gives XP in return. If there are no other players around, or no one willing to help you out, there will be purchasable items that allow the player to self-revive and continue to play from the same location they died. The final option is to respawn back at the last respawn marker you passed.

What the player risks from dyeing is damage to weapons and gear as well as being open to be looted and losing Bling that isn't banked. The player also loses some XP. However items can be purchased that protect against these risk.